Kabbalat Shabbat Circle For the first time in Jewish history, a unique, meaningful, egalitarian Kabbalat Shabbat service was held on a Friday night at Israel’s Kotel, or Western Wall, to welcome the Sabbath Queen. Jewish women and men, boys and girls, young and old, prayed together and celebrated the arrival of Shabbat without a mechitza on May 10th, in what was the first of a new Masorti tradition. Rabbi Yerach...
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USY Summer Travel Experiences Transform Young Lives The Pilgrimage Group There’s a quote that says, “Travel far enough, you meet yourself.” And it’s true. Just ask the parents of USYers who have been transformed as they have prayed atop mountains, visited concentration camps, danced with friends to local music and so much more as part of USY summer travel experiences. Robin Gilman and her husband, who live in Ne...
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Members of West End Synagogue and the local Muslim community In light of the devastating attacks directed at Jewish and Muslim communities in recent months, one synagogue saw an opportunity to bring both groups together in a powerful display of peace and unity. In late May, Rabbi Joshua Kullock of West End Synagogue in Nashville, Tennessee, invited the local Muslim community to the synagogue for an iftar, a meal th...
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Last Fourth of July, more than 20,000 people showed up on Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York, to see Joey “Jaws” Chestnut chomp down a world-record 74 hot dogs (and buns) in just 10 minutes to win his 11th Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, while more than 1 million viewers from around the country watched on ESPN. The competition, which has become must-see holiday tradition for many Americans, has some interesting—and Jewi...
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Carlos and his wife, Linda A few hours north of Mexico City, Mexico, lies the city of San Miguel de Allende, a popular destination named by Travel + Leisure magazine as the “World’s Best City” in 2017 and 2018. With many Americans and Canadians visiting the city for its remarkable colonial architecture, local Mexican cuisine and beautiful art scene, a growing number are staying for a much different reason. Nestled ...
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Valerie with friends When Valerie Weisler, now 21, was a freshman in high school, she saw a fellow student getting teased for being overweight. In an instant, the powerful messages she learned from Ramah Nyack summer camp, METNY USY and Orangetown Jewish Center inspired her to approach the boy and say two words that changed her life and the lives of thousands of others ever since. “I told him, ‘You matter,’” she says. ...
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By Rabbi Deborah Silver, Shir Chadash, New Orleans, Louisiana When we consider the centrality of Torah to our tradition—whether in the sense of the scroll in the Ark or our expanded use of the term to embrace the Tanakh and all of the literature of the teachers who came before us—it is interesting to consider the way we memorialize in community the time that Torah was given to us. In contrast to the Seder and the me...
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The Weinstein family overlooking Jerusalem When Gary and Dori Weinstein’s third child entered this world, they wanted to share their love of Judaism from the beginning. So, just as they did for his older siblings, they gave him a Hebrew name: Eitan. “We chose to give him a Hebrew name as part of a connection,” shares Gary. “His brit milah (circumcision) ceremony wasn’t ultra-traditional but my wife and I put a lot int...
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Wearing jewelry dates back to the Old Testament when Abraham’s servant—who goes looking for a wife for Isaac—gives the young Rebecca, who fetched water for him and his camels, a nose ring and bracelets (Genesis 24:47). In more recent times, jewelry has become a personal outlet for many Jews to proudly display their heritage, from necklaces, bracelets, earrings and rings bearing beautiful Jewish symbols, to those disp...
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Bob Leventhal, USCJ Kehilla Leadership Specialist, reflects on a road taken, answering the question:
What’s the most profound journey you’ve been on and how did it change you? Bob Leventhal When we sold our Springfield, Ohio-based family cleaning products business in 1993, I had the opportunity to consider a new path. I had been a driven businessman for 23 years. After five years with the new owners, and 23 years as a driven businessman, I began to consider the meaningfulness of my work, asking what is next and wh...
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